Hitherto, it has been a widely used technology to supply workpieces into a hollow spindle having a chuck at a front end by pushing them from a rear end thereof. A work supplying apparatus therefor is also known.
For instance, there has been known a work supplying apparatus for supplying long workpieces by pushing them into a hollow spindle from a rear end by means of a bar feeder having a feed rod with a finger chuck for holding the workpieces at a front end thereof in order to feed the workpieces sequentially to machine tools such as an automatic lathe, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application No. S59-156705 (Page 1, FIG. 1) for example.
There has been also known a work supplying apparatus for supplying short workpieces that are to be individually processed by supplying the workpieces from the rear end of a hollow spindle and by pushing the workpieces by a work pushing means, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application No. S62-7301 (Page 1, FIG. 1) for example.
However, the former work supplying apparatus has a problem that it is not easy to supply short workpieces to the automatic lathe because it does not support the short workpieces. The latter work supplying apparatus also has a problem that, because it just pushes in the workpieces, smooth supply may become difficult depending on the shape, size and other properties of the workpieces.